After a huge, short sharp and a dynamic campaign, South African artist, Brett Bailey’s controversial and offensive‘Exhibit B’ exhibition, due to be staged in London last night, was finally closed down after mass protest.

The show featured live African actors, men and women semi-naked, shackled with chains and bondage as a theme. This misconceived offensive mess, was supposedly making a statement about the nature of racism, objectification, power and control.It did neither, rather it echoed the painful and unresolved references to Victorian anthropological racism. It was the metaphorical and cultural equivalent, of white man’s trophy safari hunt.

In short, Bailey misguidedly sought to use racist imagery to combat racism. Being a white South African, his attempt to use Africans as his canvass, was seen as utterly unacceptable to the many thousands who supported our campaign. And thousands they were, with over 23,000 signing our online petition to have the show withdrawn.

White supremacyRacism and the neoliberal white supremacy remains a real and tragic reality for people of colour, throughout the world. However, the specific struggles of those of us who make up the global African or people of colour diasporas, all differ in some way, according the political realities of our respective nations.This can be seen in the specific histories and struggles against racism and contemporary political, economic and cultural conditions in Latin America, the US, Europe, Africa and Australia.

White privilegeOne aspect of white privilege is the ability to lazily assume, that work, which may well be viewed as quite progressive in one country, is universal in its appeal.There are huge and real differences of experience and understanding, between those of us who are the descendants of enslaved Africans, who suffered the Maafa, 500 years of transatlantic slavery, in what remains, the greatest crime in human history and, those who may or may not have experienced colonialism.

Britain as a country is still in deep denial about the nature of racism. Bailey’s work assumes a post-racial world that does not exist, neither in South Africa nor indeed, anywhere else.

In the Disneyesque world of post-racist, white privilege, showing the film Uncle Toms Cabin may be a quaint reminder of long gone bygone age, in the real world, the film remains deeply offensive.

Bailey’s arrogance led him to the mistaken belief that as a white son of the Rainbow Nation, his insight would have universal appeal in particular to Africans.What he failed to understand that each Africa diaspora is informed with the particularities of geography, culture and history

The Barbican and Nitro Theatre groupThe campaign led by the Chair of the campaign, Birmingham based activist, Sara Myers, entered into extensive dialogue with those who commissioned the show, UK Arts International, the promoter and the sponsor in chief, the Barbican Arts Centre, a leading international arts organization based here in London.We lobbied the Barbican’s funders, City of London Corporation. We engaged with Nitro Theatre, a London-based Black theatre company, who fully and publicly supported Brett Bailey after being commissioned by the Barbican to organise casting sessions for the show.

Despite sincere appeals and strong warnings about the deeply provocative nature of this work, all were agreed that the real problem was that we had failed to appreciate the artwork or understand that this was an incredibly important show.Sara Myers, asked one of the most poignant questions of the campaign when she asked both the Barbican and Nitro Theatre, ‘who is this work important for?’

We were treated with the type of condescending patronisation that viewed the campaign, as a group of ignorant but well-meaning people. Their whole approach seemed to be to demonstrate, that they were desperately, keen to liberate us from our artistic ignorance and sell the show to us.

In the end, it was the pupil, who taught the master.We were very disappointed, with role played by Nitro Theatre who, as the campaign began to build momentum, were cynically deployed as a human shield by both the Barbican and UK Arts International.

Despite much communication Nitro refused to call off their misguided support of this artistic charade.Black actor restrained as part of the Bailey Exhibit. The Barbican said Brett Bailey’s work ‘sets out to subvert a disturbing phenomenon. We were the many, they were the fewAll refused to hear our voice or heed our call for the show to be withdrawn. A demand that was backed by a stellar array of Black organisations such as OBV, BARACK UK and BEMMA Arts network, alongside UpRise, trade unions, campaigning groups, members of the public and a number of high profile individuals.They were told repeatedly that they had made a serious error and that putting on such a deeply controversial exhibition was a massive provocation, particularly in London, the most multicultural city in the world.

We pointed out that the City of London Corporation and the Barbican were governed by boards that are 99% white and, that as such, they were in no position to come to an informed opinion about the nature of racism as utilised in this work, for purely sensational and commercial ends by Bailey.We pleaded and we counseled. Still they refused to listen and last night over 600 people supported our opening night demonstration and such was the sheer power of our protest that the Barbican eventually caved in.

Smear campaignBailey himself, rather weakly tried to defend his work by falsely brushing off our concerns and nothing more than brouhaha. He stated that ‘London has its knickers in a twist’ and that our campaign was calling for his work ‘to be banned’ adding that we were nothing ‘ but an angry mob’.I’m sure that for some white people, any group of black people demanding their rights will be routinely seen as such. Here again Bailey’s arrogance and confusion is perfectly illustrated.

Of course, all this was part of a co-ordinated publicity smear campaign, as evidenced when we handed in our petition to the Barbican. We were falsely accused of ‘storming the doors’ when no such thing actually happened.This narrative attempted to suggest that not only were we ignorant but we were also violent.This was a disgraceful attempt to publically marginalise and undermine our campaign. The reason? To act as a smokescreen to hide the Barbican’s own wafer thin commitment to race equality. It is worthy of note whilst they couldn’t find more than one black person to sit on their board, they sure as hell found a whole heap of additional Black security men, for all our meetings with them.The Barbican said Brett Bailey’s work ‘sets out to subvert a disturbing phenomenon. Nitro fails to speak at its own public consultationNitro then belatedly and under extreme pressure organised a ‘public consultation’ where they bizarrely refused to join their own public discussion panel. The Barbican, who were on the panel, displayed the kind of cack-handed, amateurish understanding of race equality issues involved as to beggars belief.The campaign team won that debate hands down and really, given the strength of feeling in the room, the Barbican should have cancelled the show there and then.

Then on the opening night of the show in the Vault arts venue in Waterloo, London, over 600 people turned out to demonstrate and oppose this show.

RoadblockJammed in an archway rail tunnel, that led to the entrance the atmosphere trembled to the beat of many African drums, horns, chants and whistles. It was a total roadblock.

Those in attendance were furious and determined to close the show. Despite the blithering wail of the Barbican who accused those in attendance of ‘not behaving peacefully’ a constant narrative in this campaign, the show was closed with no one being arrested, injured or property being damaged.We closed that show, don’t you know.

We achieved an important victory in closing this wretched show. We stood up as a community and worked together to defend of our cultural rights in a marvelous show of people power and unity. We exposed the weak and shambolic artistic and intellectual commitment of a major world arts institution to the principle of race equality. We confronted the largely white, cozy, liberal arts establishment that dominates London cultural landscape. We demonstrated that unity, focus, discipline and hard work can deliver.

Brett Bailey will no doubt hawk his wears elsewhere, as his show moves on to other cities throughout the world. This campaign will follow him and we have already been in touch with our friends abroad.

Where to now for the Barbican and Nitro?The Barbican reputation is deeply damaged and it will need to work extraordinary hard to recover from this deeply damaging episode. Whilst it can boast an internationally renowned roster of preforming artist, what about space of Black British artists constantly marginalised by such a lazy and disingenuous approaches to ensuring racial diversity.What about their board and staff make up, again we see an organisation that fails to represent the city it serves. To put in context the Metropolitan Police have more black employees than the Barbican.Nitro Theatre has lost all credibility as a black arts group after so allowing themselves to so ruthlessly used, no doubt the Barbican will throw them under the bus eventually.

What next?The lessons for us all are, as Marcus Garvey told us, that ‘unity is strength’. Our next step is initiate a discussion to re-establish a national Black arts network to mobilise communities in defence and promotion of our culture and ensuring cultural equality and respect.It also highlights the urgent need for a national Black arts movement to tackle some issues from Black History Month to issues raised here. We will be meeting to discuss how and when such a network might be created and how, in a world that seeks to destroy radical black political opinion, such a network could be sustained.

What our small campaign demonstrates so perfectly is that anything is possible when we unite.Victory is ours and the truth is, it tastes sweet. But we should be under no illusion, whilst there in no doubt, we won an important and significant battle, there is more to do and the war against racism, remains to be won.

Scientists have finally figured out how some of the dark-skinned inhabitants of the Solomon Islands have naturally blonde hair. Researchers used to believe the blonde hair came from interaction with European people, however, a group from Stanford has detected a genetic difference in the blondes. They swabbed the cheeks of 85 people, 43 with blonde hair, to compare their DNA to that of people with darker hair and found a chromosomal difference caused the blonde hair. The researcher identified a change in the gene TYRP1, which affects pigment in humans and mice, as the cause. The scientists consider the effect to be very unique. “The mutation is at a frequency of 26 percent in the Solomon Islands, is absent outside of Oceania, represents a strong common genetic effect on a complex human phenotype, and highlights the importance of examining genetic associations worldwide,” said the abstract of the report. The team was stunned by their findings. “They have this very dark skin and bright blond hair. It was mind-blowing,” Sean Myles, one of the researchers, told the Daily Mail. “As a geneticist on the beach watching the kids playing, you count up the frequency of kids with blond hair, and say, ‘Wow, it’s 5 to 10 percent’.” Eimear Kenny, co-author of the study, has similar feelings. “‘Within a week we had our initial result. It was such a striking signal pointing to a single gene — a result you could hang your hat on,” he said. “That rarely happens in science.”

Hey, you still have to explain the blue eyes, LOL!!!All genetic variations or mutation come from the original Afrikan stock.

Whether it is Plato, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Jean-Paul Sartre, B. F. Skinner, Konrad Lorenz, or the philosophical assumption of Christianity, all Western philosophies make similar worldview assumptions: each is based on dissonance that they variously state as the struggle between nature and nurture; biology and culture; the individual and society; heredity and environment; and instincts and conditioning. For example, in Platonism the conflict is between reason and appetite; in Christianity it is between obedience and disobedience, spirit and flesh, and God and the Devil; in Marxism, it is between the State and the individual and the capitalist and the worker; with Freud it is between the id and superego and instincts and social conditioning; Sartre creates a conflict between consciousness and negation and choosing and not choosing; with Skinner the conflict is between animal instinct and social conditioning; and with Lorentz it is between the animal and its struggle against Nature. This basic dualistic or dichotomous thinking continues in Western philosophies and is the basis of other dichotomies such as those between spirit (God) and matter (the world), creation and evolution, science and religion, or the divine aspects and the animal aspects of the human being. These dichotomies exists in each philosophical system and in most of the systems one aspect dominates, or is more important than the other. Plato’s reason or soul of the world represents the divine that must control the appetite, symbol of the body of the world. In Christianity, the spirit must make sure not to succumb to flesh, which is considered weak and easily susceptible to temptation. Marxism’s dialectical materialism juxtaposes the material or physical over the metaphysical or religious, which he considered the “opiate of the people.” His economic determinism postulates the priority of economic systems over religious, social, and political systems. Freud, like Plato argues for balance, but he too stresses psychosexual over psychosocial development. In addition, his Life instinct (Eros) and Death instinct (Thanatos) hints of dualism, and especially his id-superego paradigm. (Freud’s notions of human development and libido in a superficial way align him more closely with Afrikan thought). Several theories involve (some type of) determinism, which is usually in opposition to freedom. Determinism itself is a philosophy that holds pre-existing conditions invariably determines all human volitions. It also implies existence is static and linear. Western theories have variously employed behavioral, psychological, and economic determinism. Even the Christian notion of God’s design or the last judgement speaks of determinism. Unfortunately since most of Western theories/philosophies were based on conflict, many sought escape in the hope of a better future, or a futuristic optimism (called progress, a materialist notion). A few Afrikan and Afrikan American scholars, particularly Cheikh Anta Diop, Marimba Ani, and Jacob Carruthers in the deconstruction of Western racist scholarship, have pointed out many cultural assumptions of the Western worldview. Western thought is based on a pessimistic outlook; bipolarity or dualism; an antagonism toward Nature; a warrior mentality. All of the above philosophies possess one or more of these qualities. And apart from Christianity and Plato’s metaphysics, both of which are indebted to Afrika, the former to Kemetic astro-mythology (Heru the KRST), and the latter, remnants of Pre-Socratic philosophy derived from Kemet, all of the other philosophies are based on materialism, a Greek concept that developed from the doctrines of Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Heraclitus. As a final point, Western theories and philosophies leaves the individual confounded, not knowing which path to choose to proceed with his or her life. They relegate any notion of truth to one’s opinion and this is a Greek gift, from Xenophanes. The various philosophies and their schools of thought contribute to the confusion over the nature of the human being offering no clear answers. For all the scientific proofs and empirical data amassed by the various theorists and philosophers, the individual in Western civilization is left confused. The Afrikan on the other hand, provides a definite development and progression for the human being, offering purpose, meaning, and direction, supplemented with knowledge. It all starts with their cosmologies, which are based on the ideas of unity and harmony.

Dear World Citizens:I have read a number of articles from your Internet outreach as well as articles from other sources about the casualties in Liberia and other West African countries about the human devastation caused by the Ebola virus. About a week ago, I read an article published in the Internet news summary publication of the Friends of Liberia that said that there was an agreement that the initiation of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was due to the contact of a two-year old child with bats that had flown in from the Congo. That report made me disconcerted with the reporting about Ebola, and it stimulated a response to the “Friends of Liberia,” saying that African people are not ignorant and gullible, as is being implicated. A response from Dr. Verlon Stone said that the article was not theirs, and that “Friends of Liberia” was simply providing a service. He then asked if he could publish my letter in their Internet forum. I gave my permission, but I have not seen it published. Because of the widespread loss of life, fear, physiological trauma, and despair among Liberians and other West African citizens, it is incumbent that I make a contribution to the resolution of this devastating situation, which may continue to recur, if it is not properly and adequately confronted. I will address the situation in five (5) points:

1. EBOLA IS A GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISM (GMO)

Horowitz (1998) was deliberate and unambiguous when he explained the threat of new diseases in his text, Emerging Viruses: AIDS and Ebola - Nature, Accident or Intentional. In his interview with Dr. Robert Strecker in Chapter 7, the discussion, in the early 1970s, made it obvious that the war was between countries that hosted the KGB and the CIA, and the ‘manufacture’ of ‘AIDS-Like Viruses’ was clearly directed at the other. In passing during the Interview, mention was made of Fort Detrick, “the Ebola Building,” and ‘a lot of problems with strange illnesses’ in “Frederick [Maryland].” By Chapter 12 in his text, he had confirmed the existence of an American Military-Medical-Industry that conducts biological weapons tests under the guise of administering vaccinations to control diseases and improve the health of “black Africans overseas.” The book is an excellent text, and all leaders plus anyone who has interest in science, health, people, and intrigue should study it. I am amazed that African leaders are making no acknowledgements or reference to these documents.

2. EBOLA HAS A TERRIBLE HISTORY, AND TESTING HAS BEEN SECRETLY TAKING PLACE IN AFRICA

I am now reading The Hot Zone, a novel, by Richard Preston (copyrighted 1989 and 1994); it is heart-rending. The prolific and prominent writer, Steven King, is quoted as saying that the book is “One of the most horrifying things I have ever read. What a remarkable piece of work.” As a New York Times bestseller, The Hot Zone is presented as “A terrifying true story.” Terrifying, yes, because the pathological description of what was found in animals killed by the Ebola virus is what the virus has been doing to citizens of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia in its most recent outbreak: Ebola virus destroys peoples’ internal organs and the body deteriorates rapidly after death. It softens and the tissues turn into jelly, even if it is refrigerated to keep it cold. Spontaneous liquefaction is what happens to the body of people killed by the Ebola virus! The author noted in Point 1, Dr. Horowitz, chides The Hot Zone for writing to be politically correct; I understand because his book makes every effort to be very factual. The 1976 Ebola incident in Zaire, during President Mobutu Sese Seko, was the introduction of the GMO Ebola to Africa.

3. SITES AROUND AFRICA, AND IN WEST AFRICA, HAVE OVER THE YEARS BEEN SET UP FOR TESTING EMERGING DISEASES, ESPECIALLY EBOLA

The World Health Organization (WHO) and several other UN Agencies have been implicated in selecting and enticing African countries to participate in the testing events, promoting vaccinations, but pursuing various testing regiments. The August 2, 2014 article, West Africa: What are US Biological Warfare Researchers Doing in the Ebola Zone? by Jon Rappoport of Global Research pinpoints the problem that is facing African governments.

Obvious in this and other reports are, among others:

(a) The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), a well-known centre for bio-war research, located at Fort Detrick, Maryland;

(b) Tulane University, in New Orleans, USA, winner of research grants, including a grant of more than $7 million the National Institute of Health (NIH) to fund research with the Lassa viral hemorrhagic fever;

(c) the US Center for Disease Control (CDC);

(d) Doctors Without Borders (also known by its French name, Medicins Sans Frontiers);

(e) Tekmira, a Canadian pharmaceutical company;

(f) The UK’s GlaxoSmithKline; and

(g) the Kenema Government Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone.

Reports narrate stories of the US Department of Defense (DoD) funding Ebola trials on humans, trials which started just weeks before the Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Sierra Leone. The reports continue and state that the DoD gave a contract worth $140 million dollars to Tekmira, a Canadian pharmaceutical company, to conduct Ebola research. This research work involved injecting and infusing healthy humans with the deadly Ebola virus. Hence, the DoD is listed as a collaborator in a “First in Human” Ebola clinical trial (NCT02041715, which started in January 2014 shortly before an Ebola epidemic was declared in West Africa in March. Disturbingly, many reports also conclude that the US government has a viral fever bioterrorism research laboratory in Kenema, a town at the epicentre of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The only relevant positive and ethical olive-branch seen in all of my reading is that Theguardian.com reported, “The US government funding of Ebola trials on healthy humans comes amid warnings by top scientists in Harvard and Yale that such virus experiments risk triggering a worldwide pandemic.” That threat still persists.

4. THE NEED FOR LEGAL ACTION TO OBTAIN REDRESS FOR DAMAGES INCURRED DUE TO THE PERPETUATION OF INJUSTICE IN THE DEATH, INJURY AND TRAUMA IMPOSED ON LIBERIANS AND OTHER AFRICANS BY THE EBOLA AND OTHER DISEASE AGENTS.

The U. S., Canada, France, and the U. K. are all implicated in the detestable and devilish deeds that these Ebola tests are. There is the need to pursue criminal and civil redress for damages, and African countries and people should secure legal representation to seek damages from these countries, some corporations, and the United Nations. Evidence seems abundant against Tulane University, and suits should start there. Yoichi Shimatsu’s article, The Ebola Breakout Coincided with UN Vaccine Campaigns, as published on August 18, 2014, in the Liberty Beacon.

5. AFRICAN LEADERS AND AFRICAN COUNTRIES NEED TO TAKE THE LEAD IN DEFENDING BABIES, CHILDREN, AFRICAN WOMEN, AFRICAN MEN, AND THE ELDERLY. THESE CITIZENS DO NOT DESERVE TO BE USED AS GUINEA PIGS!

Africa must not relegate the Continent to become the locality for disposal and the deposition of hazardous chemicals, dangerous drugs, and chemical or biological agents of emerging diseases. There is urgent need for affirmative action in protecting the less affluent of poorer countries, especially African citizens, whose countries are not as scientifically and industrially endowed as the United States and most Western countries, sources of most viral or bacterial GMOs that are strategically designed as biological weapons. It is most disturbing that the U. S. Government has been operating a viral hemorrhagic fever bioterrorism research laboratory in Sierra Leone. Are there others? Wherever they exist, it is time to terminate them. If any other sites exist, it is advisable to follow the delayed but essential step: Sierra Leone closed the US bioweapons lab and stopped Tulane University for further testing.

But it's deeper than just men calling a "weak" man a B or saying someone throws like a girl. It goes back to most folks Holy Books, which have enshrined in them, female inferiority. Shat, God is a Man rather be a force that evenly represents both masculine and feminine qualities; or at least have a Mrs. God that God shows the most respect, and that would in turn serve as a model for human, LOL! Even the Christian holy trinity has inserted a holy spirit rather than the holy Mother, to complete the Father and the son. Below is an excerpt from my book, Distorted Truths.

Throughout the Bible, women are mistreated or negatively represented. Historian Adib Rashad points out that “In the Old Testament, for example, men are fully in control. In Genesis, God states, ‘And I will put enmity between thee and thy wife, and between thy seed and her seed. . . . Unto the woman he [God] said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.’ Rashad continues: Throughout the Bible, women are presented as cunning, deceitful, disobedient to God’s laws, and wanton transgressors. Job’s wife exhorted him to curse God, Jezebel to the devout Christian represented evil; Lot’s wife disobeyed God’s orders by looking back at the burning city of Sodom and Gomorrah — and was turned into a pillar of salt. There is Mary Magdalene — cast out by Jesus, and, of course, there is Delilah, who deceived Samson with her charms and alluring de- meanor. One can see the rejection of man’s bodily relation to women in Saint Augustine. For Augustine sexuality had to be given up entirely in order for him to live a life of the spirit. Mary, mother of Jesus is one of the few positive feminine symbol and she was divested of sexuality and made a virgin. For Martin Luther and John Calvin women were to submit to their husbands unconditionally, and Calvin says explicitly, ‘Wives cannot obey Christ unless they yield obedience to their husbands.’

In a way this post is a continuation of my midwifery blog on 3/30/13. The above video is an actual C-section surgery being performed. What a horrible way for life to enter into the world. Rather than employ this procedure only when absolutely necessary, Western doctors have used fear tactics, scaring women into the operation, by having them believe the life of their unborn was in jeopardy, when in reality the doctors had other motives or reasons. Today, hospitals routinely intervene in the birth process, to make it as fast and profitable as possible. The costs of births in the U.S. are at least twice as high as any other country in the world, yet the results are essentially the worst in every category. (The current average prices for different births, without the assistance of insurance are as follows: C-Section - $10,000 - $12,000; Vaginal delivery - $13,000; Home birth with midwife (all expenses) - $2,000 - $4,000.) Doctors actually look for excuses to intervene, and unnecessary interventions are always dangerous.

There is also a growing trend called "Designer Births. A designer birth is a caesarian-section is scheduled for a certain day (or time), perhaps a holiday, birth date of a parent, or family member, followed by a tummy tuck after the delivery. Celebrities, like Victoria Beckham, Mel B, and Britney Spears, have helped to make designer births more popular. The fear is that this practice, which is unnecessary and dramatically increases the chances of an unhealthy mother and child, will become popular with more and more women. Whatever happened to doing things the good, old-fashion way?

The following is a list of word derived from Afrikan languages. The words fall into three categories: names of plants; names of animals that were exclusively found in Africa; names of material and immaterial artifacts. (A fourth class exist of derogatory terms the English used to demean Afrikan people and culture. Those words are excluded from this list.)

Dr George Granville Monah James was an Afrikan Guyanese scholar who held degrees and teaching certificates in theology, logic, Latin, Greek, philosophy, mathematics and history. A professor at Arkansas A & M and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, he studied the works of eminent Western scholars such as C.H. Vail, E.A. Wallis Budge, Swineburne Clymer and Godfrey Higgins. James in his seminal work Stolen Legacy, when published in 1954 concluded that the Greeks were not the originators of Greek philosophy. His was the first book to argue that the Greeks stole their philosophy from the people of North Afrika commonly called the Egyptians.James presents seven primary arguments: (1) Greek philosophy was stolen Egyptian philosophy (2) Greek philosophy was alien to the Greeks (3) Greek philosophy was the off-spring of the Egyptian Mystery System (4) the Egyptians educated the Greeks (5) the doctrines of Greek philosophers are the doctrines of the Egyptian Mystery System (6) the education of the Egyptian Priests, and the Curriculum of the Mystery System, show Egypt was the source of Higher Education in the ancient world, not Greece; and (7) the Memphite Theology contains the theology, philosophy, and cosmology of the Egyptians and is therefore an authoritative source of doctrinal origin.The release of Dr James’ long-awaited book stirred tremendous controversy in 1954 in apartheid America. His very attack on the Greco-Roman, Judaeo-Christian foundation of Western civilization upset western acade- mia and still does today. His unveiling that Aristotle stole and plagiarized materials from the royal libraries and temples throughout Egypt offended those whose intent it was to keep Afrikans in subordinated places, away from power, and held captive by a history that starts in slavery thus having no impact on world high-culture except as hewers of wood and drawers of water. Dr James’ life ended in 1954 under suspicious circumstances, many alleging that he was murdered for revealing too much and thus daring to challenge the established racist European American power structure that vampiristically lives off black oppression. James’ work was seen as a shot across the bow of white supremacy, one whose echo reverberates throughout the Afrikan world. James had attained the nous. His Stolen Legacy is a must-read.P.S. Recently, James’ work has come under attack. James made several errors, as he had to rely on various modern authors’ translations of Medu Netcher. However, in Civilization or Barbarism, Diop has revisited the idea of the stolen legacy and by using his own translations of the Kemetic language, he has confirmed much of James’ work.

The Scramble for Africa was the invasion, occupation, colonization, and annexation of Afrikan territory by European powers during the age of New Imperialism (1870–1914), between 1881 and 1914. In order to avoid conflicts over the scramble, Europeans convened the Berlin Conference of 1884. The last 60 years of the 19th century saw the transition from "informal imperialism" by military influence and economic dominance, to the direct rule of colonies in Afrika. It began with the occupation of Egypt, and the acquisition of the Congo. Then in 1884–85, Otto von Bismarck convened the Conference to discuss and resolve the "Africa problem." The diplomats used a humanitarian guise for the meeting, claiming to be concerned about the slave trade, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages and firearms in certain regions, and by expressing concern for missionary activities. But their main concern was the acquisition of colonies. The diplomats in Berlin laid down the rules of competition by which the great powers were to be guided in seeking colonies.

Today, Afrikan nations are willfully giving their lands and water rights away. These resource grabs often proceed in the name of development, but all they develop are gains for foreign countries, and a few corrupt local leaders. In the process, they make every problem that the continent already faces a lot worse.

A continuing tragedy, racism in the Arab world: reposted from AFRICANGLOBE

Slavery in Arab society

In this 21st century of ours, there is still a country where African men, women and children are “constitutionally” inferior and can be led to the slaughter, like sheep without the slightest remorse or legal recourse. Shockingly, that country is in Africa. That country is also a Muslim country. Today the world celebrates the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but some have no time to celebrate as the misery of slavery continues to gnaw at the very heart of their dignity. In the United States of America, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation that made it clear on January 1st 1863 that “all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”. The abolition of slave trade marked a point of no return in the collective history of mankind as America moved towards civil rights. But while slavery in most parts of the world is a thing of past, Mauritania remains an exception. As you read this column on this remarkable day of March 25, 2013, there are people who belong to people, inherited as property, worked like donkeys, tortured at will, not because it is lawful but because it can be done. In Mauritania, Blacks can be killed, “perfectly killed without being accountable to anyone without having to apologise for anyone,” to quote from Aimé Cesaire’s poem Partir in his book Cahier d’un retour au pays natal. Although slavery has been made illegal several times (no pun intended), the practice remains widespread and is tolerated throughout the country. And slaves are still taught such nonsense as: your paradise is under your master’s feet. Light skinned Mauritanians, known as Arabs, have continued in an absurd tradition that penalises the Black majority composed of Haratines, Fulani, Wolof and Soninké. Anti-slavery in Mauritania As for abolitionists, they continue to face legal intimidation and arrest by the country’s law reinforcement who, in my point of view, are awaiting the umpteenth abolition of slavery in Mauritania’s constitution. Mauritania is not only a land that is very much attached to its culture of slavery, it is also known for its lugubrious stance on racism. Racism is almost a bedrock of the Mauritanian Arab culture. Since gaining independence from France in 1960, the leaders of Mauritania have built a country in which Black Mauritanians have been relegated into the ranks of second-class citizens. From 1984 to 2005, the country was led by one of its worst dictators in the country’s recent history. Under Maouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya’s regime, more than 120,000 Black Mauritanians were deported to Senegal and Mali and more than 3,000 Black Mauritanians were led to the slaughter. These injustices reached their apogee on the 28th of November, 1991, when the government publicly executed 28 Black Mauritanians without cause or legal trial. This was to serve as a warning for all Black Mauritanians. Those who remained in the one-time West African country, which left the mostly Black ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) between 1999 and 2000, have continued to be persecuted. Mauritania now considers itself part of North Africa. Yearning to follow in the footsteps of African Americans who broke the shackles of slavery 150 years ago, Mauritanian slaves’ greatest aspiration is to one day sing: “free at last, thank God we are free at last”.